Hollywood concedes, sort of, on 'Lincoln' complaint

Charles J. Lewis

Published 4:22 pm, Saturday, February 9, 2013

WASHINGTON -- Chalk up a win for Rep. Joe Courtney in his Civil War tiff with Hollywood scriptwriter Tony Kushner about the historical accuracy of a key element in Steven Spielberg's hit movie "Lincoln."

After Courtney, D-Conn., complained earlier this week that the film erroneously depicted two Connecticut House members as voting against the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery, Kushner responded with a "yes-but" concession.

The Jan. 31, 1865, House roll call vote is the film's dramatic crescendo after President Abraham Lincoln's campaign to round up congressional support for the amendment, which narrowly won the necessary two-thirds approval.

Courtney complained that all four House members from Connecticut actually voted for the amendment and that the film failed to show "Connecticut's fidelity to the struggle to preserve the Union and end slavery."

Kushner, nominated for an Oscar as "best screenwriter" for his work on the film, replied that Courtney was correct. "We changed two of the delegation's votes, and we made up new names for the men casting those votes, so as not to ascribe any actions to actual persons who didn't perform them," Kushner said.

However, he continued, the facts were changed to serve the larger story: "These alterations were made to clarify to the audience the historical reality that the Thirteenth Amendment passed by a very narrow margin that wasn't determined until the end of the vote. The closeness of that vote and the means by which it came about was the story we wanted to tell. In making changes to the voting sequence, we adhered to time-honored and completely legitimate standards for the creation of historical drama, which is what `Lincoln' is. I hope nobody is shocked to learn that I also made up dialogue and imagined encounters and invented characters."

And furthermore, Kushner continued: "I respectfully disagree with the congressman's contention that accuracy in every detail is `paramount' in a work of historical drama. Here's my rule: Ask yourself, `Did this thing happen?' If the answer is `yes,' then it's historical. Then ask, `Did this thing happen precisely this way?' If the answer is `yes,' then it's history; if the answer is `no, not precisely this way,' then it's historical drama.

"The Thirteenth Amendment passed by a two-vote margin in the House in January 1865 because President Lincoln decided to push it through, using persuasion and patronage. . . None of the key moments of that story --the overarching story our film tells --are altered. Beyond that, if the distinction between history and historical fiction doesn't matter, I don't understand why anyone bothers with historical fiction at all."

Kushner said he was "sad to learn that Rep. Courtney feels Connecticut has been defamed. It hasn't been. The people of Connecticut made the same terrible sacrifices as every other state in the Union, but the state's political landscape was a complicated affair. The congressman is incorrect in saying that the state was "solidly" pro-Lincoln. Lincoln received 51.4 percent of the Connecticut vote in the 1864 election, the same kind of narrow support he received in New York and New Jersey.

"As Connecticut Civil War historian Matthew Warshauer has pointed out, the broader context of Connecticut's history doesn't reflect what Courtney had said in his letter. The point is we weren't unified against slavery.'

Courtney said he was "pleased that Mr. Kushner conceded."

"My effort from the beginning has been to set the record straight on this vote, so people do not leave the theater believing Connecticut's representatives in the 38th Congress were on the wrong side of history. This is a positive step toward that end, and I still hope a correction can be made in advance of the film's DVD release."

The film has received 12 Oscar nominations. In addition to Kushner, the nominees include Daniel Day-Lewis for best actor and Spielberg for best director. The film has been nominated for best picture.